Vaughn Spurlin wrote:
I’ve used Coverity’s static source code analysis tools to identify hundreds of bugs in Inkscape source. I’d like some guidance on the best way to contribute bug report details and proposed fixes to Inkscape. I’m a relatively new Coverity employee getting up to speed with our static analysis tools for identifying defects. Inkscape was recommended as an open source project with C/C++ source that I could use to satisfy my educational needs while contributing to an open source project.
Nice to hear! It will be interesting to see what kinds of bugs you unearth and what kind of impact that will have on the user experience. (Anyone got ideas on how we could analyse the impact this will have?)
I want to contribute code fixes along with bug details. I suggest a first pass to report as many bugs as I can to the Inkscape Bug Tracker, followed by a second pass to add suggested fixes. Then Inkscape developers with commit privileges can review my code fix suggestions and apply the fixes as they see fit. Once the first pass is done and bug details are visible to the community, anyone else is welcome to contribute fixes also. What process should we follow to make the best use of everyone’s efforts by avoiding several people working on the same bug?
Is it possible to categorize bugs? It could even help to simply break them up w.r.t. where in the code they occur. For example, I might be more comfortable reviewing and applying bugfixes for code that in src/display (and some other areas), while other people might be more comfortable with fixing bugs in lib2geom, lpe's, certain areas of the gui, etc.
Also, in the slightly longer run it could be appropriate to give you Bazaar access to allow for a more direct path.
What I’m requesting at this point is a discussion about my suggestions, and some decisions about how best to proceed. As an example, here’s one defect found by Coverity analysis, with my proposed code fix.
It might be good to communicate with the Inkscape "bug team" directly and have a look at the guidelines for reporting bugs in general: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Bug_management
With regard to the specific bug you posted in your e-mail, I'm currently rebuilding Inkscape, but as soon as that's finished I'll have a look and apply your fix, so I guess that's one down :)